AM - summer movies at the theater (ten movies for six bucks!)
PM - get a babysitter for the two little ones while they're taking their naps, and have a date with the two older ones

We also have daily time blocked out for reading, math and boredom. I'm a big believer in unstructured time. How will they learn to creatively fill their time if they don't have any time to fill?

And following last year's "Surviving Summer," we have weekly themes. Every theme will include a craft, an activity, a recipe, an outing, and a service project. The kids helped me select themes for this year. We've got:

I'm still available through email (and I'd be happy to email you my list of the fun things we're doing), and I'm sure I'll float around the blogosphere occasionally. But in the meantime, just know I haven't died or anything. I'm just hangin' with these guys.

Hi, Linda and Richard Eyre here. You may know us from our parenting book bestsellers or the blogs of our daughters.....or perhaps you have seen our weekly columns in the Deseret News.

But in any case, we know you. And we love your blog! Of all the "mommy blogs" out there, it is surprising how few actually focus on mothering and parenting. Yours is one of them, and you do it so well!

We have what we think is our best and most important parenting book ever coming out the first of September, and we would like to invite you to be part of our advisory board and help us craft (and disseminate) our message about the dangers of ENTITLEMENT! We feel that the entitlement attitudes of today's kids are the biggest problem of their generation (and the biggest concern of parents throughout the world)!

The new book is called THE ENTITLEMENT TRAP: How to Rescue Your Child with a New Family System of Choosing, Earning, and Owning. It will be in stores in early September, but if enough people pre order it from Amazon.com and other on line outlets it could debut on the bestseller lists its first week, and that would cause thousands of other parents to be aware of it and to have access to a message we think parents desperately need.

So here's the deal: If you are willing to work with and advise us on our board, we can send you a large pre publication sample of the book so that you can make your readers aware of it and give them a chance to order it at a pre-pub discount of more than 33%. And then we would want your ongoing input for the website www.EntitlementTrap.com which is now in its lead-up phase to the book, but which will continue to supply additional info and helps to moms long after the book is out. It will, of course, link to the blogs of all members of our board.

Take a look at that site and get a bit more idea of the nature of the book, and let us know as soon as possible if you will be an adviser. We will then send you the extensive excerpts so that you can blog about the book and about the movement prior to the book's release.

Best, Linda and Richard Eyre (eyres1@comcast.net)

PS There will also be webinars and other exciting opportunities for those who pre order the book, and of course for you and other board members.

Words from President Thomas S. Monson

The Savior taught His disciples, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish—and in effect save their lives.

Smart man

Homemaking is surely in reality the most important work in the world. What do ships, railways, mine cars and government, etc., exist for except that people may be warmed and safe in their own home? ... [The homemaker's] is the job for which all others exist. - C.S. Lewis

Little Prince

This is true

It seems that the blessings of motherhood never cease (I guess because the hard times never do either), and the joy is so much more than we could have expected. - Linda Eyre

Sunshine

I'm trying

In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance. Let us open our eyes and see the heavy hearts, notice the loneliness and despair; let us feel the silent prayers of others around us, and let us be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to answer those prayers. - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Mr. Squishy

I need to remember this

It is true that we acquire children in a different way than we would acquire a company. And we are amateurs at the business of parenthood. One morning we wake up with a pink, wrinkled little bundle beside the hospital bed and presto! we are parents.

However, the development of lovely, joyful, responsible children doesn't just happen accidentally, any more than a successful corporation just happens. A unified, organized progressing family requires a unified, organized, progressive plan! Setting goals and producing a plan are just as essential to a mother and father as to a good company. - Linda Eyre